12 Steps Back to Writing

Week 1: Recovering a Sense of Safety

I feel like I haven't written in ages.

For work, yes, out of personal necessity, of course... but not fiction. Not for the stories I like to lose myself in, or the characters who sometimes feel so alive I dream about them.


After being away for so long, it's a daunting task to see that blank page and know that somehow I need to create thousands and thousands of words, new worlds, and new people. So I'm taking baby steps, one of which is going through The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. I started using this guide--more of a workbook, really--last year when creativity seemed elusive. I could write, sure, but nothing I felt inspired by. One of my favorite parts about TAW is the daily writing, three pages or 750 words of mind-clearing nonsense. I write about dreams and frustrations and snippets of conversations and personalities that are cluttering up my mind. With all of that out of the way, many distractions seem to disappear as well. I'll be blogging about my 12 Steps here periodically and on the Facebook and the Twitter.

What do you do when you feel less than creative? Have you worked through The Artist's Way before?